February 19, 2013

Mr. Pistorius said he and Ms. Steenkamp had gone to bed early on Wednesday night, but in the middle of the night he heard a noise from the bathroom and went to investigate on his stumps, not his artificial legs.

He was nervous, he said, because the bathroom window did not have burglar bars and contractors who had been working there had left ladders behind. The room was dark, he said, and he did not realize that Ms. Steenkamp was not in bed. He felt vulnerable and fearful without his prosthetics and opened fire at the door, he said, calling to Ms. Steenkamp to telephone the police.

Only then did he realize that she was not in bed, he said. He put on his artificial legs and tried to kick down the door before breaking it open with a cricket bat to discover Ms. Steenkamp.

He carried her downstairs, he said, and “she died in my arms.”

Even the fact that he carried her downstairs makes the story unbelievable. She was shot in the head and still alive. You don't pick someone up and move her around in that circumstance if you want her to live.

It's absolutely true that someone with a head injury shouldn't be moved and it's absolutely true that most people know this and all people should. However, based on bitter -- sometimes tragic -- experience at sea I can say that the "don't just stand there, do something" reaction *always* shows up and can be very powerful. So it's not beyond the realm of possibility that Pistorious just wasn't thinking. It's unlikely, but not impossible to believe.

I heard he kept a baseball bat and a cricket bat in the corner of his bedroom for protection. But I wondered "what good would the bats be, in the middle of the night, unless he slept with his prostetic legs attached?" which no one does btw. He killed her.

The prosecution, I imagine, will say that he roughed her up with the cricket bat or his fists and she retreated to the bathroom. A far more plausible story. Haven't there been reports of neighbors overhearing arguments earlier in the evening? This is a bad guy.

I can't recall who, but someone once pointed out that the reason writing fiction is so much harder than writing about real events is that successful fiction ultimately has to make sense. The more I ponder this weird story the more I can see how his version just might possibly be true at the outside..

(Although I ain't bettin' the house on it--I'm basically a Damon Runyon kinda guy: "The race does not always go to the swift, nor the contest to the strong--but that's the way to bet." lol)

I could see this being true if he was having a dream about someone breaking in and was still half asleep, but although that makes more sense, it would be easier to laugh at.

I have dreams all the time, where I wake up and it takes a minute to realize that the crazy thing I was thinking was not really happening. I have run out to my truck ready to hurt someone after dreaming it was being broken into.

If you were dreaming that you just caught your wife cheating on you, and while still half asleep you shot her, would that be an accident?

He didn't kill just anyone. He killed a bikini model. That's an aggravating factor. The murderers of small children and bikini models deserve no clemency. This is ultimately a crime against humanity......Also I think it would be fitting and proper if the SI girls wore a black armband in all their public appearances. Ask not from whom the thong fell, it fell from thee.

=====================Most of the world rejects English Common Law and the variant enshrined in the Sacred Parchment of America - which since it came into being, some 150 new nations have looked at when considering their own Sacred Parchment...and by and large rejected.Our legal system is sort of like the English foot and measures system we use long after even the English discarded it for metric. An Outlier.

No jury in S Africa.

1 judge and two assessors. Napoleonic law.And while the Investigating Magistrate is still working up the case for trial, in the Napoleonic System, once enough evidence points to guilt, guilt is assumed. And the trial is if the defendent can make the argument they are innocent or that the charges are too severe and should be mitigated.

Pistorious appears to now be in the status where enough evidence has been found that his guilt is now officially assumed and he is in the status of someone who did premeditated murder and awaiting final disposition at trial. (or like our system, they hate the time and expense of trials in the rest of the world and prefer plea bargains be struck.)..

IGV - "It always comes down whether the defendant can reassemble the facts to create a plausible scenario that creates reasonable doubt. I predict he will be found not guilty."

You presume the rest of the world is set up with a legal system just like America's.No.Perhaps if it makes it to a celebrity trial Americans bottle fed notions of how justice works since childhod will be amazed to see how much of the rest of the world does things.Jury? Reasonable doubt? Here, but not there.

Cedarford, while 1 judge and two assessors might well be part of Napoleonic law. South Africa follows English law in both criminal and civil procedure, company law and the law of evidence. Pistorius is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.

"I'd prefer to be judged by three "legal minds" rather than an OJ or Rodney King type juror."

For me, that would depend. Putting aside the immorality of committing a crime and wanting to get away with it, if I were guilty and they had a lot of evidence of my guilt - and for some reason I didn't plea bargain - I'd pin my hopes on my lawyer selecting jurors who were sympathetic to me and could be manipulated.

If I were innocent but found the prosecutor still trying to convict me, I'd be more scared of a jury of laypeople than a panel of judges. Just as defense lawyers can try and stack the jury with people most inclined to be sympathetic to you, the prosecutor can try and stack the panel with jurors more likely to convict you even if the burden of proof is not met.

Oscar is saying he didn't realize Reeva had gone to the bathroom when he went to close the sliding balcony door. But he also says he kept his 9mm under his bed. If he had gone back to get his gun, he'd have seen she wasn't still in bed. So, to make this story plausible, he must have taken the gun with him to close the door.

He says he wasn't wearing his artificial legs. So, the key question, can he walk on his stumps while carrying a gun?

He says he wasn't wearing his artificial legs. So, the key question, can he walk on his stumps while carrying a gun?

His account is detailed and if it's not the truth it will fall apart in numerous aspects. Just on the face of it it does not sound credible at all. Also, the authorities have leaked to the press that she had a crushed skull and the cricket bat had blood all over it.

Then I read the article. He fired through a closed door? Into a tiny space? Just because he heard noises? He heard threatening noises and didn't immediately check to see if his paramour was in bed, safe? He's more fearful for himself?

This whole case illustrates why it always is prudent to have a loaded gun handy.

Actually it illustrates how women should be more discerning about the people they shack up with. If he did murder her, its likely he was an abusive boyfriend from the start. Unlikely he just decided on the spur of the moment to kill his girlfriend.

Yes, very prudent. If you want to kill your model girlfriend with her long legs with you trying to chase her on your stumps, you had better have something to close the gap. 9mm will do that nicely, once in the hip to slow her down and make her duck into the bathroom and hope for mercy.

Detective friends have often said that homicide suspects almost always attempt to make things look like a) an accident, b) a suicide, c) mistaken identity, or d) self-defence.

Their job at the homicide scene is to search for and gather evidence which will demolish any and all of those putative excuses. Prosecution lays out said evidence and then often either demolishes the defendant on cross-examination (if called first by defence) or calls the defendant for direct exam, which usually goes quite badly for him.

A guy killed his girl, and claims it was an accident. Unprecedented!I never claimed it was unprecedented, however, your "it happened in SA, so who gives a shit" is evidently misplaced as evident by the world-wide attention the shooting has receieved.

I'd plead that abuse of steroids made me crazy. The "nice guy who overcame all odds" bit at the Olympics seems sort of contrived about now. The media better watch it, or the rest of the public will realize that they make it up.

[not giving a shit]...evidently misplaced as evident by the world-wide attention the shooting has received.

The only reason it made news out side of S. Africa is because ole Oscar was an Olympic and Paraolympic celebrity, even if he didn't win gold in either. He did win hearts and minds by his perseverance. So when he earns what he earns (per his statements), far surpassing poverty, folks wonder WTF is wrong with this guy.

Rightly so...but if it had been just a local soccer (futbol) player whacking his mistress no one outside Pretoria would have written up jack squat.

That above...and we Yanks heard plenty enough about our malfeasance for supporting your prior regimes...so now that you have what you sought, we don't give a damn...e.g., we're not interesting in being involved again. Thank you very much.

Aridog said..Oscar was an Olympic and Paraolympic celebrity, even if he didn't win gold in either.

He won gold medals in the men's 400 metre race in a Paralympic record time of 46.68 seconds and in the 4 × 100 metres relay in a world record time of 41.78 seconds. He also took a silver in the 200 metres race, having set a world record of 21.30 seconds in the semifinal.

Ululating Umlungu ... you suggest I not read about ole Oscar. I think my ignorance shown by not realizing he did win some Para-Olympic gold pretty well indicates I don't read much about him unless it pops up somewhere I read regularly...and then I read with minimal interest.

I do tend to react to being lectured about the significance of some meaningless death otherwise, especially if is based on some county's inflated view of itself. That's how what you said appeared to me. My bad.

You pointed out his awards, without acknowledging that his current notoriety is based solely upon his Para-Olympic & Olympic celebrity. Otherwise he is just one more murderer among the roughly 32 per 100,000 population in South Africa...among the highest rates in the world. In short: nothing news worthy except Oscar's celebrity.

Killing people is barely unusual in south Africa, otherwise. The fact Americans are perpetually accused of being the most violent of cultures, even with a murder rate of 5 per 100,000 population compared to places like SA in the 30's tends to make us ignore the rest of the BS about SA.

I don't intend to offend you nationalistically...just point out why Oscar's case is international due to celebrity versus murder per se. Compare to the deaths of Whitney Houston or Mindy McCready or any other celebrity from here...nothing but statistics except for the celebrity. So, no, I don't spend much time reading about it or giving a damn, suicide or murder. I am far more concerned about violence in my own neighborhood...no time for the rest of the world.